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REMARKABLE ROGUES
REMARKABLE ROGUES
REMARKABLE ROGUES THE CAREERS OF SOME NOTABLE CRIMINALS OF EUROPE AND AMERICA decoration BY CHARLES KINGSTON WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LTD. NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY, decoration MCMXXI. SECOND EDITION PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE DEVONSHIRE PRESS, TORQUAY....
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PREFACE
PREFACE
That interest in crime and the criminal is universal no one will deny. In a cruder age it was the custom to organize parties to witness the public execution of notable scoundrels—Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) took Thackeray and, I believe, Dickens, to see Courvoisier's—but nowadays we are more decorous, although on occasion several thousand persons can assemble outside a prison and stare at a blank wall during a private hanging inside. Most of us, however, are content to behold crime through t
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CHAPTER I A RUSSIAN DELILAH
CHAPTER I A RUSSIAN DELILAH
One day in a Russian country-house a girl of sixteen was presented to three men—a prince, a baron, and a count, and as she greeted them with youthful enthusiasm and camaraderie she was quite unconscious of the fact that each of the three had asked her father for her hand. In the land of the steppes, girls develop quickly, and although Marie was very young in years she was a fully-matured beauty, tall, with fine features, a beautiful complexion, a divine voice, and enough charm for half a dozen o
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CHAPTER II AN INFAMOUS FEMALE POISONER
CHAPTER II AN INFAMOUS FEMALE POISONER
Gesina Gottfried was, as a girl, plump and pretty, bright and pert, and the young men of the town in Germany in which she was born never let her know what loneliness meant. She had, of course, numerous suitors; and, while the social position of her parents was a poor one, she did not hesitate to declare that she would only marry a man likely to make money and give her the luxuries for which she craved. This was regarded as a good joke by her acquaintances, for in those days the status of women i
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CHAPTER III BELLE STAR, THE GIRL BUSHRANGER
CHAPTER III BELLE STAR, THE GIRL BUSHRANGER
When the American Civil War came to an end it set free from discipline thousands of rough, lawless men, many of whom subsequently adopted crime as a profession. Amongst them was the father of Belle Star. He was a tall, powerfully-built man, with rugged features and gorilla-like arms, a crack shot and a fearless horseman, and during the four years Star had fought on behalf of the Southern against the Northern States he had revelled in the conflict. Peace had no charms for him, and when the rival
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CHAPTER IV THE WOMAN WITH THE FATAL EYES
CHAPTER IV THE WOMAN WITH THE FATAL EYES
Jeanne Daniloff was reared in an atmosphere of mystery, intrigue and squalor. Her father was one of the many victims of Russian tyranny, and he had been forced to wander about Europe, going from one cheap boarding-house to another, accompanied by a wife who resented his lack of worldly success, and by a daughter who, as she grew older, rebelled against the squalid isolation of the life they were leading. But Jeanne was not the sort of girl to accept her fate quietly. She had inherited her father
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CHAPTER V MADAME RACHEL THE BEAUTY SPECIALIST
CHAPTER V MADAME RACHEL THE BEAUTY SPECIALIST
Anybody who has sufficient self-assurance to set up as a "beauty specialist" will never want for clients as long as there are middle-aged and ugly women in existence and vanity continues to be one of the most common weaknesses of humanity. But when Rachel Leverson, an unscrupulous London Jewess, claimed to have discovered a process by which she could make members of her own sex beautiful for ever she struck out into a new line, and one that proved eminently successful until the police intervened
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CHAPTER VI THE MONTE CARLO TRUNK MURDERESS
CHAPTER VI THE MONTE CARLO TRUNK MURDERESS
When a young woman deliberately embarks upon a career of crime she is certain of a fair amount of success, provided she is pretty enough to attract men to her side. A beauty, however black her record may be, need never want for male assistance. If she is clever and designing she can, as a rule, lay her plans with such discretion that if arrest follows she is able to plead that she was merely the tool of a designing man. The trick has succeeded nine times out of ten. Juries naturally pity the "we
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CHAPTER VII MARTHA KUPFER, SWINDLER
CHAPTER VII MARTHA KUPFER, SWINDLER
The European War produced many German criminals, but the most resourceful of them all was Martha Kupfer, a middle-aged widow with a plausible manner and a pretty daughter, whose only capital was a profound knowledge of the weaknesses of her compatriots, out of which she made over £200,000 before she was arrested. She obtained this fortune in less than a couple of years, and there is every reason to believe that had she not grown careless she would never have been detected. Anybody who is convers
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CHAPTER VIII MADAME GUERIN, MATRIMONIAL AGENT
CHAPTER VIII MADAME GUERIN, MATRIMONIAL AGENT
There have been many matrimonial agency swindlers, but when Madame Guerin, the plump little Frenchwoman with the pleasant and engaging manner, entered that "profession" she introduced new methods into that old form of fraud. She did not hanker after a lot of clients, preferring to find a nice, gullible man with money, scientifically relieve him of it, and then pass on to the next. Her career proved short and exciting, and only by an accident did it fail to wind up with a tragedy. But that was no
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CHAPTER IX THE MURDER OF MADAME HOUET
CHAPTER IX THE MURDER OF MADAME HOUET
The annals of French crime are rich in dramatic and extraordinary episodes, but none can excel in breathless interest the story of the murder of Madame Houet and the discovery and punishment of her murderers twelve years after her tragic death. Madame Houet was a widow with a fortune estimated to exceed two hundred and fifty thousand francs, who lived with her son in a little house in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. Her only daughter was married to a wine merchant named Robert, who was reputed to be
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CHAPTER X THE BOOTMAKER'S ROYAL WOOING
CHAPTER X THE BOOTMAKER'S ROYAL WOOING
When the Essen doctor advised Maria Hussmann, Frederick Krupp's "lady housekeeper," to try a course of thermal baths at Aix-la-Chapelle she was only too glad to do so. Maria was a typical German woman, heavy, solid, and, as she was in the late thirties, fond of boasting of her respectability. She styled herself "a noble lady," and she was in the habit of explaining to her acquaintances that she only "condescended" to manage Herr Krupp's domestic staff for him, having been tempted by an enormous
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CHAPTER XI THE BOGUS SIR RICHARD DOUGLAS
CHAPTER XI THE BOGUS SIR RICHARD DOUGLAS
The most remarkable fact about Richard Douglas, professional swindler, was that he kept a record of every one of his crimes, as well as a profit-and-loss balance-sheet, which he drew up at the end of each year. His diary was an astonishing document, and had it not been for the craft and obvious guilt of the impostor it might have been used as evidence to prove that he was not quite right in his head. Douglas, however, was too resourceful a thief to be a lunatic, and for some years he victimized
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CHAPTER XII THE ENTERPRISING MRS. CHADWICK
CHAPTER XII THE ENTERPRISING MRS. CHADWICK
There had been a sensational forgery in a certain Canadian town, and when the police announced that they had captured the criminal a huge crowd sought entrance to the Court where the case was to be tried. Those who managed to squeeze themselves in were astonished when they saw a slim, fair-haired girl, with dark, alluring eyes, standing in the dock, for Lydia Bigley, aged sixteen, was the forger! The magistrates could hardly believe the evidence for the prosecution. It seemed incredible that suc
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CHAPTER XIII THE MILLION DOLLAR RANCH GIRL
CHAPTER XIII THE MILLION DOLLAR RANCH GIRL
One summer day a beautiful Mexican girl was sitting motionless on horseback gazing across the ranch of which her adopted father was the owner, when a young man, tall, of good appearance, and pleasant address, came up and respectfully raised his cap. The girl instantly smiled a welcome, for in that remote region strangers were few, and it was the custom of the country to welcome and entertain them. But this young man had no desire to be taken to the ranch house. He wanted to have a chat with the
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CHAPTER XIV JAMES GREENACRE
CHAPTER XIV JAMES GREENACRE
According to his own description of himself, James Greenacre was a very respectable grocer, a lenient creditor, and one of the most popular residents in the parish of Camberwell; and to prove the latter statement he pointed to the fact that he had been elected one of the overseers of the parish by a substantial majority. But the plain truth is that, during the greater part of the fifty-two years which comprised his span of life, Greenacre was a hypocritical scoundrel who preached virtue and prac
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CHAPTER XV CATHERINE WILSON
CHAPTER XV CATHERINE WILSON
Amongst female poisoners Catherine Wilson takes a leading place. She had an active career as a professional murderess extending to ten years, perhaps even longer than that, but we do know that she committed murder in 1853, and she was not brought to justice and executed until 1862. A very long career, indeed, for a woman whose ignorance was only equalled by her cunning, and whose gaunt and unfavourable exterior was in keeping with a black heart and a diseased brain. The first time the public hea
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CHAPTER XVI PIERRE VOIRBO
CHAPTER XVI PIERRE VOIRBO
The case of Pierre Voirbo, the murderer of Désiré Bodasse, an old man who had been his friend, is one of the most remarkable of French crimes. It established the reputation of Macé, the famous detective, who devoted a book to explaining how he succeeded in tracing the murderer from the first clue—a pair of human legs—to the last, when, by a simple experiment, he located the very spot where the murder had been committed. If Macé had not been an exceedingly clever man Voirbo must have escaped, for
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CHAPTER XVII EMANUEL BARTHÉLEMY
CHAPTER XVII EMANUEL BARTHÉLEMY
Emanuel Barthélemy was a villain of the melodramatic type. Throughout his stormy and adventurous life he appeared to be fully conscious of the fact that he was acting a part. He was theatrical in everything he did; yet the touch of realism was seldom lacking, and he lived and died without fear. He was tall, strongly-built, with a large head, thick hair, an expressive cast of countenance; dark, flashing eyes, and a mouth that was eloquent of the villain's vile, savage temper. Barthélemy was a rev
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CHAPTER XVIII WILLIAM PARSONS
CHAPTER XVIII WILLIAM PARSONS
The so-called "gentleman criminal" has flourished in all ages and in all climes, and there have been many remarkable scoundrels who have utilized their social position to rob their fellows. One of the most notorious was William Parsons, the son of a baronet, and the nephew of a duchess, who was educated at Eton, served as an officer both in the army and navy, and, after a career during which he experimented in every kind of fraud, ended on the gallows. Parsons began early in life to plunder and
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CHAPTER XIX ADAM WORTH
CHAPTER XIX ADAM WORTH
When the American Civil War was going none too well for the Northern States, President Lincoln, who was determined not to introduce conscription until he was absolutely compelled to, offered a special bounty of one thousand dollars (about £200) to every fit man who would volunteer to serve "for the duration of the war." We all know now that even the generous bounty failed to solve the recruiting problem, and that conscription had eventually to be resorted to, but for a time that thousand dollar
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CHAPTER XX THE SECRET PRINCESS OF POSEN
CHAPTER XX THE SECRET PRINCESS OF POSEN
A pretty, fair-haired girl, who looked not more than eighteen, sat in a forlorn attitude in the park near the Imperial Palace at Posen. Passers-by glanced at her curiously, and whenever she lifted her soft blue eyes they saw that they were wet with tears. When a stranger paused as if to address her the girl instantly froze, and there was something about her small mouth that caused him to change his mind. Presently, however, a tall, elderly man of distinguished appearance came strolling towards h
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Transcribers' Notes
Transcribers' Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unpaired quotation marks were retained. Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. This book spelled "Belle Starr" as "Belle Star". The text always uses the surname "Tarnowska", but for men, it should be "Tarnowski". Page 10 : "complicated" was misprinted as "compliothed" in this copy of the original
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